How to Redesign a WordPress Website (Beginner’s Guide)

Is your WordPress tract underperforming? Dropping traffic, debased conversion rates, mediocre mobile experience, aliases slow loading times are clear signs it’s clip for a redesign. But tackling a redesign tin beryllium daunting, arsenic you mightiness interest astir losing SEO rankings.

At WPBeginner, we’ve redesigned our tract aggregate times, learning what useful and what doesn’t done proceedings and error. Along nan way, we’ve developed strategies to make nan process smoother and much effective.

In this guide, we will locomotion you done each measurement of redesigning your WordPress site, from determining if you really request a redesign to choosing nan champion redesign method.

When Should You Redesign Your WordPress Website?

You mightiness beryllium tempted to redesign your WordPress website simply because you’re emotion saturated pinch its existent look. However, a redesign tin beryllium time-consuming, truthful it’s important to see respective factors earlier diving in.

Mainly, you will want to beryllium judge that redesigning your website is really a worthwhile undertaking.

For instance, if your existing WordPress website is losing traffic, it mightiness beryllium clip for a redesign. A driblet successful postulation often indicates that your tract nary longer meets personification expectations.

Also, first impressions matter online. If your tract looks old-fashioned, it whitethorn not bespeak good connected your marque aliases business.

A mediocre personification experience, for illustration visitors struggling to find important information, is different clear motion that a WordPress website redesign is needed. We erstwhile addressed this successful a previous redesign by improving contented discoverability pinch adjuvant sidebar links and mega menus.

Speed is different important facet if you are considering a redesign of your WordPress website. Maybe you’ve tried everything to optimize your tract performance, but it’s still not up to par. This could beryllium a motion that your existent WordPress tract creation is excessively dense and you request to make it much lightweight.

The aforesaid goes for mobile-friendliness. Perhaps you’ve tried various responsive creation tips, but your tract still doesn’t activity good connected mobile devices. This could beryllium because your existent taxable is simply excessively old, and you request to move to a much mobile-friendly theme.

If your website nary longer accurately represents your marque aliases offerings, see a redesign. We precocious revamped nan WPBeginner homepage to amended bespeak our expertise and authority successful nan WordPress space.

Last but surely not least, if your tract isn’t turning visitors into customers aliases subscribers arsenic efficaciously arsenic it should, past a redesign could thief amended your bottommost statement and fortify your online presence.

If you cheque immoderate aliases each of these boxes, don’t worry. The adjacent conception will locomotion you done our go-to WordPress website redesign checklist. We’ll screen what you request to do before, during, and aft nan creation process.

Feel free to usage nan speedy links beneath to navigate done nan steps:

1. Collect Website Performance Data

You mightiness beryllium thinking, ‘I already cognize I’m losing postulation and conversions, truthful why do I request to cod website capacity information earlier I redesign WordPress?’

Well, it’s important to corroborate these issues pinch difficult data. Plus, erstwhile you redesign your WordPress website, you’ll want to cognize if your efforts are paying off.

By collecting capacity information from your existent website, you create benchmarks to comparison against aft nan redesign. This way, you tin measurement whether your caller creation really translates to amended results.

To make this process easier, we urge utilizing nan MonsterInsights plugin for Google Analytics. We person utilized nan instrumentality extensively to thief amended nan capacity of our websites. We moreover wrote a afloat MonsterInsights review.

This plugin allows you to connect your WordPress tract pinch Google Analytics, giving you entree to captious capacity metrics correct successful your WordPress dashboard.

For a WordPress website redesign, we propose checking and utilizing these trading information points arsenic benchmarks:

• Overall traffic – The full number of visitors to your site. It tin thief you understand your website’s scope and whether nan redesign improves wide visibility.
• Bounce rate – The percent of visitors who time off aft viewing only 1 page. It tin show you whether your caller creation amended engages users and improves your tract speed.
• Conversion rate – The percent of visitors who complete a desired action (like making a acquisition aliases signing up). You tin find if nan redesign improves your site’s effectiveness successful achieving its goals.
• Top performing pages – Which pages visitors position astir often, helping you protect celebrated contented during nan redesign and understand what your assemblage likes.
• Top postulation sources – Where your visitors are coming from (search engines, societal media, etc.), helping you creation your caller tract to amended cater to these channels and support aliases amended postulation flow.
• Average convention duration – How agelong visitors typically enactment connected your tract truthful that you tin spot if nan redesign makes your contented much valuable to users.
• Page views per session – How galore pages a visitant typically views. It tin bespeak whether your caller creation improves navigation and encourages users to research much content.
• Mobile vs desktop postulation split – The proportionality of visitors utilizing mobile devices versus desktop computers. You tin usage this accusation to guideline your redesign efforts and cater to nan astir widely-used devices.

You tin study much successful our article connected nan most important metrics you must way connected your WordPress site.

With MonsterInsights, you tin besides usage nan ‘Conversations AI’ characteristic to get speedy answers astir your data.

For example, you could ask, ‘What was my conversion complaint successful nan past month?’ This characteristic makes it easy to entree nan accusation you request without diving heavy into analyzable analytics reports.

2. Run a WordPress Website Audit

Before you commencement to redesign WordPress, you request to understand nan actions and factors that led to nan capacity metrics you collected successful nan erstwhile step. This way, you tin make informed decisions astir what to alteration and what to keep.

To summation these insights, you request to behaviour a website audit, which is simply a bid of actions you do to understand nan personification acquisition connected your existing website.

We urge asking for your users’ opinions straight truthful that you tin understand their needs, preferences, and symptom points consecutive from nan source.

The UserFeedback plugin is an fantabulous instrumentality for this, allowing you to adhd surveys to your tract and quickly cod visitant opinions. We usage nan plugin connected our ain websites, and you tin study much successful our complete UserFeedback review.

You tin cheque retired our broad guideline to study much astir gathering website creation feedback successful WordPress. We’ve besides compiled a database of user acquisition feedback questions to inquire your website visitors.

You will besides want to measure your personification journey. Visitors typically travel predictable steps earlier making a acquisition aliases submitting a form, and location whitethorn beryllium obstacles successful their journey.

If you’re utilizing MonsterInsights, nan User Journey addon tin thief way customer journeys connected celebrated WordPress eCommerce platforms for illustration WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and MemberPress.

For instance, successful WooCommerce, you tin position a user’s full journey, including each interactions, times, and durations.

For much details, spot our guides enabling customer search successful WooCommerce and tracking nan customer travel utilizing MemberPress.

For websites focused connected lead generation, utilizing WPForms alongside nan User Journey addon is simply a awesome solution. It shows nan referral root that brought users to your tract and nan way they took earlier submitting a form.

Note: We person personally utilized WPForms connected respective websites for our different brands and person helped customers group it up connected their websites. We deliberation it offers nan champion and astir straightforward attack to shape building, and it integrates seamlessly pinch tons of nan astir celebrated WordPress plugins. For much details, cheque retired our WPForms review.

This accusation helps you understand which contented engages users astir effectively. Learn much successful our complete guideline connected tracking personification travel connected WordPress lead forms.

Heatmap tools are different basal portion of your website improvement audit. They visually correspond really visitors navigate your pages, providing insights that earthy information unsocial can’t offer.

We personally urge Microsoft Clarity, which we usage crossed galore of our marque websites. It’s a free instrumentality that offers heatmaps, scroll tracking, and click tracking.

To get started pinch Clarity, cheque retired our guideline connected installing Microsoft Clarity analytics successful WordPress.

3. Decide to Keep Your Site Live aliases Put It successful Maintenance Mode

One of nan astir important decisions to make erstwhile you redesign WordPress is whether to activity connected your unrecorded website aliases put it successful attraction mode. This prime tin importantly effect your personification acquisition and hunt motor rankings during nan redesign process.

Here are immoderate questions you tin inquire yourself to thief you make nan correct decision:

• How extended is your redesign? For example, are you conscionable changing nan homepage aliases redoing nan full site?
• How agelong will nan redesign take? Is it a speedy update you tin do successful a fewer days, aliases a large alteration that needs weeks?
• Can your tract beryllium offline for a while? Think astir if your business tin grip being down for immoderate time.
• How galore visitors does your tract get? A high-traffic tract will suffer much from downtime than a smaller, individual blog.
• Will you alteration really your tract is group up? Are you conscionable updating really it looks, aliases are you moving things astir and changing web addresses?
• Does your tract tally important parts of your business? For instance, do you person an online store that needs to enactment open, aliases is your tract chiefly for information?

In general, we urge keeping your tract unrecorded during nan redesign, particularly if nan process will return a while and/or if your business operations will beryllium importantly impacted by downtime. It’s besides a bully action if you don’t want your site’s SEO to get impacted.

In this case, you’ll request to group up a staging tract aliases section improvement environment. This allows you to research pinch your redesign without affecting your unrecorded site.

A staging tract is fundamentally a transcript of your unrecorded website wherever you tin safely make changes. These days, galore hosting providers connection one-click staging features, including SiteGround (where we big WPBeginner).

For much information, cheque retired our guideline connected how to create a staging situation for WordPress.

Alternatively, you mightiness see a section improvement site. This action involves creating a transcript of your website connected your individual computer, offering moreover much privateness and faster improvement times.

We urge utilizing nan Local WP instrumentality for this purpose, which galore of our squad members usage to trial caller features. You tin study much astir this successful our article connected how to instal WordPress locally connected Windows and Mac.

If your redesign is comparatively speedy and won’t disrupt captious business functions, putting your tract successful attraction mode for a short play mightiness beryllium acceptable. That being said, you should beryllium alert of nan risks.

Putting your tract successful attraction mode tin effect your SEO and whitethorn require you to group up immoderate redirects. This isn’t a large problem for small, individual websites, but it tin beryllium tricky for bigger sites pinch tons of visitors.

Our preferred method is to usage nan SeedProd page builder. Besides turning connected attraction mode for your WordPress site, it lets you make a nice-looking page to show visitors astir your upcoming changes and moreover make leads by creating a waitlist landing page.

What’s more, it tin show hunt engines your tract is conscionable temporarily down by sending a typical awesome called nan 503 status, which is what Google suggests doing.

If you are willing successful this option, you whitethorn want to cheque retired our full SeedProd review.

4. Choose a WordPress Redesign Method

When it comes to redesigning your WordPress website, you person 3 main options: customizing your existing theme, choosing a caller taxable and customizing it, aliases hiring a master WordPress creation service.

Let’s research each method’s pros and cons to thief you determine which is champion for your redesign process.

Option 1: Customize Existing Theme

Best for: Site owners who are mostly happy pinch their existent creation but want to refresh its look aliases adhd caller features.

Pros of customizing your existing WordPress theme:

• Familiar pinch nan existent setup
• Potentially quicker, easier, and much affordable
• Maintains consistency for regular visitors

Cons of customizing your existing WordPress theme:

•  Limited by existing taxable structure

If you want to instrumentality pinch your existent taxable but want to get much customization options, past we urge utilizing plugins for illustration CSS Hero and WPCode.

CSS Hero is simply a ocular CSS editor plugin that lets you customize your WordPress theme’s CSS visually. That intends you don’t request to touch immoderate codification to modify nan theme, but immoderate changes you make will impact its CSS.

You tin study much astir nan plugin successful our CSS Hero review.

On nan different hand, WPCode is simply a codification snippet plugin that lets you adhd civilization codification snippets to your taxable without dealing pinch nan taxable files directly. Whenever there’s an correction successful nan code, nan plugin will disable it, and your taxable won’t get affected.

The champion portion is it tin sphere your codification changes moreover erstwhile your taxable gets an update, truthful you won’t lose your customizations.

You tin publication our WPCode review for much details.

If you request immoderate inspiration connected what you tin do to customize your existent website, present are immoderate articles you tin cheque out:

• How to Style Individual Categories Differently successful WordPress
• How to Style Each WordPress Post Differently
• How to Add Custom Styles to WordPress Widgets
• How to Customize Colors connected Your WordPress Website

Option 2: Choose a New Theme and Customize It

Best for: Those looking for a important creation alteration without nan costs of a afloat civilization solution. Or group who want to return advantage of caller taxable features.

Pros of utilizing a caller WordPress theme:

• Fresh commencement pinch modern creation options
• Access to caller features and layouts
• Potential for improved website performance

Cons of utilizing a caller WordPress theme:

• Potential learning curve pinch a caller theme
• Careful setup is required to debar compatibility issues

When selecting a caller theme, make judge to prime 1 that is fast, responsive, compatible pinch your existent plugins, and regularly supported. You should besides deliberation astir its worth for money and customization options truthful that you tin edit your WordPress site precisely really you want it.

If you’re considering a premium theme, you tin publication our guideline connected free vs premium WordPress themes to thief you make your decision. Also, make judge to travel our guideline connected properly changing a WordPress theme to debar communal errors.

For a much elastic solution, we urge SeedProd, a drag-and-drop page builder pinch dozens of taxable kits and templates. This is besides what we usage to creation civilization landing pages for ourselves and our brands.

In fact, our friends astatine OptinMonster utilized SeedProd to redesign their landing page and accrued their conversions by 340%.

With this drag-and-drop page builder, you will get a taxable and a elastic instrumentality to customize it, truthful you tin make a unsocial creation without immoderate method skills. Plus, you’ll get entree to AI devices to make contented and civilization images for your pages.

You tin study much astir SeedProd successful these guides:

• SeedProd Review: Is It nan Right WordPress Page Builder For You?
• How to Easily Create a Custom WordPress Theme (Without Any Code)
• How to Add an Animated Background successful WordPress
• How to Add Rotating Testimonials successful WordPress

Alternatively, you tin browse our database of nan most celebrated WordPress themes.

Option 3: Hire a Custom WordPress Website Design Service

Best for: Business owners aliases bloggers who want a unique, master creation tailored to their circumstantial needs and don’t person nan clip aliases skills to create it themselves.

Pros of hiring a master WordPress creation service:

• Unique, master WordPress taxable creation
• WordPress taxable that’s tailored to your circumstantial needs
• No request for individual creation aliases coding skills

Cons of hiring a master WordPress creation service:

• Higher costs (read our article connected nan costs of a civilization WordPress theme)
• Dependent connected nan designer’s timeline

If you’re tired of cookie-cutter designs, past this is an fantabulous action for you. Of course, nan situation is uncovering nan correct WordPress designers to activity with. We person a database of top WordPress agencies if you want immoderate hand-picked recommendations.

That being said, you whitethorn want to cheque retired our WPBeginner Pro Services.

For designing a civilization WordPress site, we offer:

• A dedicated task head to oversee nan redesign process
• Multiple WordPress website creation revisions
• Training for you to study really to negociate your caller site
• Full WooCommerce setup for online stores
• Search motor and capacity optimization

Rebuilding an existing tract starts astatine $599, which will get you a responsive website creation of up to 5 pages, 2 rounds of revisions, and analytics setup.

Think of it arsenic an finance for your online beingness that tin lead to improved personification experience, amended hunt motor rankings, and, ultimately, accrued conversions and gross for your business.

If you’re not sure, you tin book a free consultation pinch our squad today.

5. Back Up Your WordPress Website

Let’s opportunity you’re already redesigning your site. Before you make it live, you request to do 1 measurement that you should not skip: back up your existent WordPress website.

Here’s why backing up is truthful important:

• Protection against errors – If thing goes incorrect during nan transition, you tin easy reconstruct your site.
• Protection against backlash – If users respond negatively to nan caller design, you tin quickly revert to nan aged one.
• Preserving important data – It ensures you don’t suffer immoderate valuable contented aliases settings during nan redesign.
• Peace of mind – Knowing you person a backup allows you to motorboat your tract pinch confidence.

We urge utilizing a backup plugin for illustration Duplicator for this task. Duplicator makes it easy to create and negociate backups straight connected your website.

Once created, you tin shop nan backup record connected your computer. Or, for added security, upload it to unreality retention services for illustration Dropbox.

Restoring your tract pinch Duplicator is besides straightforward – you tin simply resistance and driblet nan backup file. The plugin besides allows you to group a betterment point, enabling you to quickly reconstruct your tract to a anterior day if needed.

6. Launch Your Site and Run Another Audit

At this stage, you’re fresh to people your recently redesigned tract and show it to your audience.

If you’re putting your website connected attraction mode pinch SeedProd, past you tin conscionable deactivate that mode truthful that everyone tin entree your site. You tin mention to our guideline connected WordPress attraction mode for much details.

If you’ve been processing your tract locally, past you tin publication our guideline connected how to move WordPress from a section server to a unrecorded site.

Meanwhile, if you person been utilizing a staging tract successful your WordPress hosting, past you tin simply usage its deploy characteristic to make your tract live. For example, pinch Bluehost, you tin usage nan Bluehost WordPress plugin to deploy each your changes successful a fewer clicks.

You tin study much astir it successful our guideline connected WordPress staging environments.

Once your tract is live, you can’t relax conscionable yet. You request to make judge everything useful right.

One point you request to salary attraction to is your SEO settings. If you determine to restructure your web pages, past you will request to group up redirects and update your internal links to bespeak immoderate URL changes. Otherwise, hunt engines won’t beryllium capable to crawl your tract properly.

This process tin return a agelong time, truthful we urge utilizing nan All successful One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin for this. It’s besides what we usage for WPBeginner to make judge our tract is ever optimized for hunt engines. For much details, cheque retired our complete All successful One SEO review.

You tin usage AIOSEO to easily find surgery links connected your full website content. If it does, you tin quickly switch nan existing URL pinch a caller 1 truthful that users don’t extremity up seeing an correction page.

AIOSEO besides lets you group up 301 redirections easily. This will beryllium useful if your redesign involves restructuring your website hierarchy.

You tin publication our beginner’s guideline to creating 301 redirects successful WordPress for much information.

Other than that, we besides urge doing an SEO audit to cheque for missing SEO titles, meta descriptions, canonical nexus tags, SSL certificates, velocity issues, and more. These are important elements that tin make aliases break your visibility connected hunt engines.

Check retired our WordPress SEO audit checklist for a step-by-step guide.

Lastly, do nan aforesaid checks we talked astir successful step 2 erstwhile we said to tally a website audit. Use heatmaps and look astatine your Google Analytics information to make judge nary 1 is having problem pinch your caller site.

7. Continuously Maintain Your WordPress Site

The occupation of a website proprietor is ne'er ending. Even aft you motorboat your site, you still request to do immoderate regular attraction tasks to make judge that your tract doesn’t go slow, susceptible to attacks, aliases commencement showing errors.

Don’t beryllium intimidated, though. We person a guideline that breaks down nan most important WordPress attraction tasks you should do, from changing your passwords and updating your plugins to reviewing your information logs.

But if you find each this excessively difficult and you person immoderate fund to spare, past we urge hiring our WordPress maintenance experts astatine WPBeginner Pro Services. You’ll get:

• 24/7 WordPress attraction and support
• Around-the-clock uptime monitoring
• Consistent WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates
• Routine unreality backups and malware removal
• On-demand emergency support

Our attraction services commencement from $57.50 per month. While this costs immoderate money, you tin deliberation of it arsenic akin to getting a WordPress information plugin, but this 1 is simply a existent personification maintaining your site.

We tin spot and lick analyzable issues that automated devices mightiness miss and make decisions based connected your circumstantial needs and website goals. If you want to study more, consciousness free to book a free consultation pinch america today.

Remember, regular attraction is cardinal to keeping your recently redesigned WordPress tract moving smoothly and securely. Whether you take to do it yourself aliases prosecute experts, make judge you person a scheme successful spot to support your tract successful apical shape.

We dream this article has helped you study really to redesign your WordPress website. You whitethorn besides want to cheque retired our article connected things you must do earlier starting a WordPress creation business and our master picks of nan best WordPress taxable builder plugins.

If you liked this article, past please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You tin besides find america on Twitter and Facebook.